2015 : The Art of Non-Conformity

6 Discoveries From Near and Far: Volume XXVI

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

Clawing My Way Back on New Year’s -- "The last day of the year meant entering a new year he would never see"

New Photos of 8 Elaborate Mosques in Iran -- Rarely seen beauty from Iran

Designing The Best Board Game On The Planet -- Board games are on the rise, and there’s a formula to their success

The 4 Most Common Relationship Problems (and How to Fix Them) -- The best predictor of how good a relationship is can be found in what kind of story you tell about it

The Great Paper Caper -- How Frank Bourassa got away with printing $200 million in his garage

New Beer Helps to Maximize Creativity (!) -- A bottle of "The Problem Solver" helps in more ways than one

Work

Checking Your Bank Accounts Will Not Make More Money

Seems obvious, right? We wouldn’t expect that driving past the gym will make us any healthier.

But when it comes to money, those of us who are self-employed tend to spend a lot of time on activities that do nothing to help the bottom line, either directly or indirectly.

I don’t just mean “administrative work,” because some administrative work has to be done even if it’s not particularly exciting. You still need to do customer service, update outdated info, and so on.

No, I mean the tendency we have to log-in just to see something. I’ll just check one more time... says the addict.

So here’s an idea: the next time you feel like checking website stats or bank account numbers, hold off a moment. First, do something that matters. Do something that will actually increase or improve whatever metrics you’re tracking. Then, go ahead and check them—because that’s human nature. But make yourself work for it first. Make yourself earn it.

Profiles

A World Record to Ski 4,161,823 Vertical Feet : Steph Jagger’s Quest

This is a quest case study. (Read others or nominate yourself.)

One time I went skiing for an hour, and then I went for hot chocolate in the lodge. Steph Jagger, whom I met at a book event in San Diego, went skiing and didn't stop until she'd gone more than four million vertical feet.

Tell us about yourself.

I’m Steph Jagger and I currently live in California where I run an executive & life coaching practice. From July 2010 to May 2011, I circumnavigated the globe in search of snow.

While traveling I skied 4,161,823 vertical feet, breaking the world record for most vertical feet skied in a single year. My original goal was 4,000,000 feet—but when I found out about the record (approximately 8 months into my trip) I tacked on a few extra feet!